The present invention introduces the method, equipment, and composition of a fire escape and suppression system that produces and maintains a hypoxic hyperbaric environment in a separate part of a building (preferably staircase shaft) or a transportation tunnel in order to provide an entirely secure escape in case of a fire emergency and instantly extinguish an ongoing fire on any floor or level of a building or any part of a tunnel.
With its mode of action based on the generation, hyperbaric storage and controlled release of breathable hypoxic fire-suppressive gas mixtures, this human-friendly system is completely non-toxic, fully automated and entirely self-sustaining. Consequently, it is ideally suited to provide complete fire safety in office and apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, shopping and entertainment centers, multilevel parking garages, industrial complexes, transportation tunnels, underground facilities, hermetic objects including submarines and other enclosed compartments and environments.
This invention is an important addition and improvement of the Fire Prevention and Suppression Systems (FirePASS(trademark)) described in earlier patent applications provided above.
Current fire suppression systems in buildings are ineffective in saving human life, especially in a catastrophic fire and destructive to property and valuables. Moreover, modern building design itself does not provide reliable escape routes and safety areas for trapped people. Staircases and elevator shafts may easy become lethal traps for fire escapees who may die from smoke inhalation or fire. Other human-occupied facilities like transportation tunnels have virtually no fire safety systems at all. The only tunnel having limited fire escape option is the tunnel between UK and France called the Eurotunnel or Chunnel. It provides a pressurized service tube between two main transport tubes that can be accessed by fire escapees if they know how and where to find pressurized entrances and are able access them. Still, the minor Chunnel fire in 1998 claimed over a billion (US) dollars from damages and business loss.
In addition, ventilation shafts and equipment (which are present in virtually all multilevel buildings and tunnels) can dramatically accelerate a fire""s propagation and significantly increase the risk of toxic inhalation. Survival in a toxic environment like this is limited to only a few minutes. Statistical analysis for the last decades shows that about 70-80 percent of fire fatalities result from toxic smoke inhalation.
The present invention employs a radically different approach: the use of a hyperbaric environment of breathable hypoxic fire-preventative atmosphere as a reliable fire escape and for the suppression of fire in a communicating area. This hypoxic environment completely eliminates the ignition and combustion of all flammable materials. Moreover, it is completely safe for human breathing (clinical studies have proven that long term exposure to a hypoxic environment has significant health benefits). Hypoxic breathable air can be inexpensively produced in the necessary amount through the extraction of oxygen from ambient air.
The described here invention can be also used for protection of building occupants from inhalation hazards resulted from a biological, radionuclide and chemical warfare, by means of instant introducing and maintaining positive barometric pressure inside a building. Positive pressure systems are used in military vehicles and vessels for that purpose, however recent terrorist threats call for introduction of similar systems also in civil building construction.
The described here system allows synergistically combining the advantages of hyperbaric hypoxic environment for protection of building or tunnel occupants from respiratory hazards and preventing or minimizing structural damage from catastrophic fires.
The principal objects of this invention are as follows:
The provision of a breathable fire-extinguishing atmosphere under increased barometric pressure in a specific escape compartment of a building (staircase shaft), tunnel (pressurized escape tunnel) or other human-occupied structure that can be easily accessed by escapees at any time.
A method for producing and maintaining a breathable fire preventative, hyperbaric hypoxic atmosphere inside a human-occupied environment or escape compartment.
A method of extinguishing an ongoing fire in a building or tunnel by releasing such pressurized fire-extinguishing hypoxic atmosphere or composition from said escape compartment into an environment affected by fire. This allows to replacing rapidly the contaminated normoxic atmosphere in such environment with the human-breathable hypoxic fire-extinguishing atmosphere and suppressing any fire at once.
The provision of equipment that can produce the breathable hypoxic fire-extinguishing composition and store it under increased barometric pressure in a specific volume or an escape compartment. Such equipment employs the processes of molecular-sieve adsorption, membrane-separation, cryogenic separation and other oxygen extraction technologies.
The provision of the hypoxic hyperbaric fire extinguishing composition having an oxygen content ranging from 7% to 14% under increased barometric pressure up to 1 atmosphere above standard, which makes it absolutely safe for human breathing.
The provision of fire safety systems having hyperbaric escape compartments with hypoxic fire-suppressive atmosphere inside tunnels, buildings, mines and other public/industrial facilities. Such hyperbaric compartments become depressurized in case of fire and release the stored hypoxic atmosphere into an area affected by fire.
The provision of a building""s system design with a pressurized staircase compartment.
The provision of a tunnel""s system design with a pressurized escape compartment.
The provision of a fire safety system providing protection against biological and chemical hazard.